Charlie's Road Trip 1999
by Farmageddon
Summary: Cromartie doesn't show. Claire Young's ordered back with Cameron in the role of mum . Sarah finds out what John's new best friend really is. Charlie's down for termination. John and Cameron slip out of the back and head to LA whilst their mums feud.
1. Chapter 1

_Hi. The last story I wrote ended up being incredibly complex exploring the permutations caused by time travel. I want to keep this much simpler. There's going to be Jameron. _

_A character I always liked was Charlie Dixon . He represents a positive father figure to John. One of the aspects that makes it easy for all dad's to relate to Charlie is in his inability to help John as his destiny catches up with him. That's a common experience and dads have to learn the wisdom to know what they can do to help their kids and what isn't 'theirs' to try to help with. Hard lesson._

_I really liked working with Claire Young in the last story. So let's start out from the following premises. _

_It's 1999. Cromartie's buried in the New Mexico desert awaiting Thermite . _

_Cameron's made contact with John . She hasn't revealed , at least to Sarah what she is straight away. _

_Lets play this up a bit. Initially Sarah really liked this girl who came over in the evenings and made John do his homework and seemed to be the reason for him taking to showering regularly, tidying his room , washing and ironing his own clothes. _

_One evening , a couple of weeks into the blossoming friendship , John ,Cameron and Claire , ( Cameron's mum, who spent years after JD coming to terms with whole the Alison/Cameron thing ) decides to come clean with Sarah. Unfortunately Sarah has a Desert Eagle down the side of the sofa where she's sitting at the time. Possibly with hindsight they took the wrong approach._

_John decides he can't stand the tension. Cameron's informed John that Charlie's on a hit list for Greys. _

_John and Cameron vanish out of the back door leaving the two feuding parents to get on with it._

_When it comes to the Jameron , I'm think I will be getting some help from a really good, experienced Jameron writer in our TSCC ' area'. So look out for that._

* * *

Charlie Dixon closed the door to his flat and placed his small bag of groceries on the kitchen table. He removed his jacket and thew it on the back of a chair. He had the feeling something was out of place. Damn right it was. Everything in his flat was still upside down . Charlie hadn't bothered to put stuff back properly since Sarah left. Most of her belongings, the ones the FBI hadn't' hauled away with them, were where they'd dumped it in the corner of the lounge.

Charlie's ' out of place ' sensation got stronger . It was like knowing he was being watched. But then, he got these kind of feelings most days. He found himself still half-expecting John to come in from school , drop his bag ,grab a bowl of cereal and then go and watch TV .

This time Charlie definitely heard something in the lounge. It sounded like paper being torn and rustling . Someone or something was definitely in there.

He stepped as quietly as he could to the through-door to the lounge and inch by inch, pushed it open.

Two slightly disheveled teenagers nervously looked up at him from the couch. One of the kids nearly spilled a bag of Doritos down the front of his shirt because he'd had his arm around a girl sitting next to him, which he quickly pulled away when he stood up.

Charlie couldn't help it. He broke the widest smile possible .

"Johnny," he called out, "You're here!" Charlie looked around the room. " Sarah, is she... ?"

John shook his head.

Charlie held out his arms and gestured him to come towards him Charlie hugged the breath of him . "Oh man I've missed you." He backed off ,touched John's face and brushed a lock of hair over his forehead.

Charlie let go of John "Who's you friend?"

"This is Cameron, Charlie." Charlie could hear the pride in John's voice.

Charlie wiped the palm of his right hand on his jeans.A brown haired girl got up and and walked _so_ gracefully towards him. Her face lit up in a smile. At the same time she seemed to be studying him . She held out her hand.

"I've heard a lot about you Mr. Dixon."

"Hey, I'm just Charlie." He said as she let go of his hand.

Charlie glanced between them "So, are you two...?"

John nodded and Cameron inclined her head to onside which he took to mean yes . Cameron's hair fell to her shoulder and Charlie caught a glimpse of healing tissue on her forehead just below her brow. He made as if he hadn't seen it but Charlie sensed Cameron had registered him noticing her wound. It had been like a momentary ripple , a 'feline' curiosity in her otherwise smooth exterior.

Charlie shifted stance, and gestured towards the kitchen." I really sorry about the mess. Its not always as bad as this . Wait here I'll get the place tidied up. I've been working some real long shifts, and I haven't had much time . Say... " he brought his hands together "are you two hungry? I think I've still got some frozen pizza and fries, somewhere."

"John's hungry. He likes Pizza. That will be fine Charlie, thank you." Despite her appearance Cameron suddenly seemed much older than John. There was a protectiveness in her manner .

In the kitchen Charlie ran a bowl of hot water and began moving plates off the table .

"John, you drying?" That's how it had been . John dried and Charlie washed.

The though-door was open. Charlie glanced at Cameron who'd settled back on the sofa and curled her legs into the space where John had been sitting.

"So where did you two meet? "

"Cameron's in my class, we started dating two weeks ago ago." John seemed nervous about talking about her. Charlie reasoned Cameron was John's first real girlfriend and he was uncomfortable, not used talking about this stuff.

It was time for Charlie to drop some bigger questions.

"Were are you living now?"

"I can't tell you. I'm real sorry Charlie, but man, it's a dump and it's crap without you". John carefully put the plate in the rack

"Sarah?"

"She's OK ..."John said 'OK' like she wasn't OK."She misses you, a lot."

John decided to drop something big of his own. "Mom doesn't know we're here."

"Jesus ,John! Then she's going to be worrying sick over you ." Charlie checked Cameron couldn't hear what he was about to say and he lowered his voice ." It's not safe for you here, the FBI are looking for your mom."

"Why do you think they were looking for her?" John appeared puzzled, but really he was testing Charlie's level of comprehension about what was happening.

"They made up some crazy story about her to get me to talk . I don't know what they really want with her."

John looked Charlie straight in the eyes. Charlie realized something had changed in him. Kids do this. One day they come home , pack their old games away in a drawer and suddenly they're getting on with the next stage of their lives , more without you. John had grown up a bit from than the last time Charlie had seen him.

"Now Charlie don't get mad , we hacked the FBI case files. They stood down surveillance on your flat , Thursday last week. Your phone's bugged and they are still opening your mail before you get it , but they've given up on mom turning up here the flat. Were OK for now."

Charlie's eyes widened, this was getting way too deep ,taking him a place he'd never been to in his life before. "John what the hell is this? I've told you about hacking, if this comes back on us they are going come down on us like a ton bricks. "

John swallowed and looked down at the pile of plates he'd dried and placed in the rack. " They won't come back at us but I'm sorry Charlie ." John glanced up at Charlie and he could sense the hurt and confusion running through him."What did the FBI tell you about us?"

Charlie shook his head . "It was some story they made up about you And your mom. I told them you were a great kid and there was no way I was believing their bullshit, not least that crap they said about you."

John looked nervous and his hand shook a little when he spoke. Charlie knew he'd had a rough time. "No seriously what did they say?"

"Oh hell I don't remember. Like I said it was some kind of bullshit to get me to talk."

"Try me."

"Ok John. Do you know who the FBI think your mom is?

"She's Sarah Connor." John answered.

"Yeh that's what they told me . So, I looked up Sarah Connor on the Internet, at work . _The _ Sarah Connor , she looks something like your mom , she has same hair, eyes, but that's where it stops. Sarah Connor? She's right up there on the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list . Terrorism, murder, arms dealing and she's a psycho escaped from a nut house. She even blew up a computer factory . I told them your mom couldn't even use a computer, she wasn't even interested in them ."

"So you didn't believe them?"

"No way."

"Do you know what Johnny. This guy, the FBI big-man? He must of thought I was real stupid. He made up this story about you being some future world leader , being chased by time traveling killer robots."

Charlie examined John's face. John did a good job of feigning incredulity.

"Yeh , I nearly said, if you think I'm going to swallow that, you're ape-crazy as well. No wonder we've got so many nut jobs running around LA ."

Charlie suddenly looked seriously worried. " What if the FBI do find out they've been hacked."

"They won't. Relax. I'm good."

There was a slight cough Charlie and John turned to look at the through-door to the lounge . Cameron stepped in. She was holding John's cell phone at arms length.

" I switched your cell back on . It's Sarah. I'm not speaking to her. She's shouting and she's figured out where we are. She wants to talk to Charlie."

Charlie hesitantly took the cell from her hand.

"Sarah, Sarah its Charlie , thank God you are OK. "

"Johns fine. He's right here."

"Yeh, Cameron's here too." Charlie turned to look at Cameron . She was frowning. " John's one lucky guy. She's a real nice girl."

Charlie's face dropped and he shook his head.

"Hey Sarah, please, let's keep some perspective here OK."

"No, I'm not doing that tonight. I'll ask John if he wants to stay here and I'll think about it, and if it's what they want I'll get them on a Greyhound first thing tomorrow. No, he's told me the FBI surveillance is stood down."

. Sarah was ranting at him again, and she sounded totally irrational. He'd seen it once or twice in her. She was like a chain saw starting up and there was no reasoning with her until she calmed down. She wasn't that much different from other women who got wound up about stuff like Disney-scripted mechanics bills or the neighbor's dog continually crapping on their lawn. Charlie never been on the receiving end of it before. Charlie closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he put the cell back to his mouth

" Ok I'm going to end the call now Sarah. You're going to have to sit tight and trust me on this. No like hell I'm calling the FBI or the cops. You have my word. I'll think about getting them back sometime tomorrow, these kids are really tired right now."

"Goodbye Sarah." Charlie said with a finality that he'd never expected to hear in his own voice.

* * *

Cameron, John and Charlie sat around the kitchen table. They hadn't spoken since Charlie ended the call. Cameron picked at a slice of peperoni. John chewed his food without registering what he was eating . Charlie appeared couldn't focus his thoughts on the situation of the teenagers sitting in front of him. So he sat, watching them eat waiting for the right thought to come into his head. It hadn't yet, this was way too big.

Cameron's cell rang .This time when she answered ,she looked perplexed.

" I'm eating Pizza ."

"No, you asked me what_ I thought_ I was doing. I replied I am eating pizza."

Cameron rolled her eyes at John and stood up. She walked over to the kitchen window, slightly parted the curtains and carefully examined the street outside.

"Where are you?"

Cameron quickly moved through to the lounge , stood by the window and peered out . She scanned around the car park behind the flat with her Cell against her ear.

"No I'm fine. No, honestly I'm _fine_."

"Sarah got stressed that's all. No, there's no need for you to come to LA."

Cameron touched the side of her forehead as if she was pushing a strand of hair back into place.

"It's graze. It's healing."

"No she didn't damage me."

"Look I can handle this. Please, don't shout. Shouting doesn't help the situation"

Cameron's voice became firmer. "You should go home . Right now . "

She rolled her head back and stared at the ceiling. She needed to determine caller wasn't on Charlie's roof. There was no heat trace she could detect above their heads . Cameron put the cell to her other ear and let out a sigh.

" No! There's absolutely no necessity for you to drive out here. To do so would be counterproductive."

John made a whirling motion with his fingers. Cameron picked up the cue

"The place is crawling with cops."

"You're not coming to Mr. Dixon's flat and that's final. If you want to put it like that, then yes, I am giving you an order ."

"I have to go, now . I'll see you soon."

"Soon Mum."

"Yep, love you too."

* * *

Charlie looked to John for an explanation. John shifted in his seat as if he was considering what to say.

"Our mum's don't get on, or rather my mom fell out with Cameron's mom. "

"Yeh I kinda guessed that." Charlie nodded. He pulled a can off a six pack and offered it to Cameron. She shook her head. He then pulled another one and handed it to John. Charlie allowed John the occasional beer at home.

"Our mothers arriving here: It would be like plutonium and uranium coming together." Cameron suddenly announced. She looked around to see if she had made an effective joke. Charlie pulled his ring-pull and started sipping beer. He was gazing into the living room carpet. She wasn't sure if he'd understood , so she developed her point ." In an atomic weapon uranium and plutonium are driven together by an explosive force thus creating the nuclear reaction which gives the weapon its devastating effect in the theater of war ."

Charlie let out a something between a sigh and a silent whistle. He leaned forward,rested his chin on his hand then glanced up at John.

John grinned and quickly changed the subject. " Did you have a good day at work, Charlie?"

* * *

Charlie was right . John had been exhausted. He'd fallen asleep on Cameron's shoulder watching TV. She had her arm protectively around him and he was curled against her. Another half hour and he'd be dribbling on her shirt. Cameron didn't seem tired herself, just quiet and calm. Charlie reasoned, after being with Sarah that's what exactly John needed right now- an oasis of peace and calm. Sarah had sounded totally wired-out on the cell.

Charlie watched as Cameron gently extracted herself from John and without waking him up. She controlled his unconscious fall onto the couch and lifted his head to put a cushion under it. She seemed to do this with total ease. Then she carefully placed the sleeping roll over him.

Cameron sat down on the floor and put her back against the sofa in front of John's sleeping form and wrapped her hands around her knees. She appeared to be totally immersed in a programme about the history and development of Russian Tanks. She had the volume down really low. Most of it was in Russian and Charlie thought it looked like she was taking mental notes and studying for an exam.

"You going to tell me what the hell is really happening here?" Charlie asked as quietly as he could.

Suddenly he saw it again, that shift in her expression. Without taking her eyes off the screen Cameron pursed her lips and shook her head. Within a microsecond she'd recalled the following:

One experience Cameron had of this kind of situation was sitting in with a Tech-crew in Future-John's over-spill quarters. They'd put on CD's and get blasted out of their heads on on Still . Their behavior quickly regressed to that of the teenagers she had recently observed in school . One night someone had made a compilation of Pre-JD animations like Simpsons and South Park. There were also clips from violent martial arts movies which they found entertaining.

On John's request Cameron hung around to keep them in order, mainly ( John requested) to stop males overly-bothering females . John also suggested it would be a way of her bonding with other females . She'd observed deep emotional, violent undercurrents running beneath these rituals particularly amongst the males . That night she kept glaring at a male lieutenant to get him to stop repeatedly 'looking over' one of the women in her group. The woman told Cameron he was 'creeping her out'.

Humans were complex and some aspects of their behavior were going to ever remain intangible to Cameron. For example the whole Tech- crew found a clip of a animated cat nailing another animal's tongue to a butcher's block amusing. Looking around the quarters. Using her visual imaging she morphed the loud, aggressive male lieutenant to a cartoon version of himself. Then she ran a visual simulation of putting her hand down his throat partially pulling out his tongue and nailing it to the door frame with a 100mm galvanized clout nail. However Cameron came to the conclusion this 'sim' would not be considered amusing to discuss amongst her group. To understand why it would not be regarded as amusing with all the violence on the screen, was another intangible.

The humans appeared to be projecting their aggression and hostility into the characters. Through laughing at them, they sublimated their innate hostility . This reduced tension and increased effective social interaction.

Cameron glanced up at Charlie . He was on his third beer and had begun slumping into his chair. The TV documentary she was watching in Charlie's living room was highly informative. Particularly concerning the effectiveness of 45mm armor plating to the hulls of the Russian T-34 tanks .

She made her decision.

"Hey Charlie" she asked in a low voice " would you prefer to watch The Simpsons instead?"


	2. Chapter 2

_OK, keeping this simple. John and Cameron are at Charlies flat. Let's find out what happened the previous night, how Sarah reacted when Claire, Cameron and John tried to come clean with with her. I'll tell this story backwards so in the next chapter we'll have a look at how Sarah came to really like this seemingly naive , intelligent 'girl' who seemed to be so good for John. _

_Until then, it's going to be one hell of a bitchfight._

* * *

Sarah lay flat on her stomach and wriggled into position to peer around the edge of the sofa. She gripped a MK 1 Desert Eagle in her right hand. There was a screech of tires as a vehicle pulled away from the house. "Hey bitch." She shouted at the armchair across the room. "You needn't think you're walking out of here. Your machine's run out on you. You're on your own now."

"Cameron's taking John to safety, and don't call her machine ." Came the reply from the woman crouching behind the Kevlar reinforced armchair opposite Sarah. Claire 'Phillips' ( nee Young) was holding a Glock 18 in both hands, upright in front of her face, foresight pressed against her forehead.

"She's taken him to safety! What the hell are you talking about?" Yelled Sarah.

"What I mean is Connor, I'm not the irrational one firing off her Desert Eagle in a front room with kids around."

Sarah looked at the gun in her hand. "Hey there was only one kid in the room. My kid."

"No there were two . That's my daughter you unloaded in to. If you had been anyone else, I swear, to Deep Time, you'd be dying slowly right now Connor, and that'd be before she pulled me off of you."

"Daughter! The machine's got your head screwed Phillips. I figure It's got John's head screwed . But ,hey, I can deal with that . He's a fifteen year old boy ,my fifteen year old flesh and blood boy . So what's your excuse?"

"Connor I'll only tell you once more, that was, technically that is my daughter."

"Daughter, Oh this I really have got to hear."Sarah managed to look around the edge of the sofa and checked to the left hand side of the 'talking' armchair. She cursed. There had been the faintest wisp of brown hair and she hadn't time to target the area before it disappeared out of view. She was going to nail this bitch, if it took all night, and the next day. She'd make her tell her where the machine-bitch had taken John , and then she was going to break her sports rifles out of the wall , load up with armor-piercing and find the bitch-metal that had kidnapped her son..

Sarah was tying to locate the position of her opponent's head by pinpointing her voice. Maybe a .44 Full Metal Jacket might just punch through the Kevlar, enough to do the job. "Ok , Claire so illuminate me: How the hell do you even get to have one of those things as a daughter? What did you start screwing around with machines ?"

"Funny Sarah. " Came Claire's reply. "You know I'm splitting my sides here. Look Connor My daughter is beautiful , intelligent, resourceful and cares in a way you can't even comprehend , and she's not like some other girls his age, she's responsible, if that's what you are tearing yourself up over. "

"That's just, _abnormal_."

"You're never going to do normal Connor, so give it up."

" I'm giving nothing up and damn-right she's responsible for something, like burning this planet up in a few years time._ And_ she's not a girl , she's a goddamn machine. Now. I'm trying to be reasonable with you here Claire and I don't understand why you don't get this . I take exception to my son being lured away and kidnapped by a machine and I take exception you holding me up from getting after them."

"Connor, here we go" replied the Kevlar reinforced armchair. "My son is the savior of mankind. Oh he's so special. Only I can protect him. Well I've got news for you, you can't protect him forever, and John's not going to be a boy much longer. Think about it Connor, you got one shot at my daughter and she was so much quicker than you. If that had been for real, John you, me we'd all be pretty fucking dead right now relying on your responses . Cameron made her decision to get her principal,that is your son, out of the line of fire, then locate a safe place from which to defend him. You were the threat in this instance, not her not enemy Metal. She's not kidnapped him, she's protecting him, mainly form you, and every other damn thing your irrational behavior's going to bring to you front door in the next few months."

Sarah peered around the edge and visualized the range of moves needed to target top center of the chair where the voice was coming from. The Eagle was heavy and she'd have to allow maybe a second more than usual for her reactions . She'd also have to brace for recoil. It wasn't going to be easy. Her opponent could theoretically move quicker with the lighter Glock.

_On a countdown from five_ Sarah resolved : "Ok let's say you're correct..." _Five, four._.. "my irrational.." _..Three two one_. Sarah stood up and took aim. The handgun boomed like a cannon thundering down a valley . The flash momentarily blinded Sarah, then she fired again . The armchair toppled back against the wall. Sarah wasn't quick enough. In the same instant Claire rolled sides ways and stood up herself .Claire leaned forward , hand-grip firmly between both hands and pair of fierce brown eyes met Sarah's .The Glock was trained on Sarah whose Eagle was trained on Claire. Sara smiled a vicious smile. This was going to be down to a battle of concentration, wrist strength . The first to let anything slip .

"Sarah" Claire spoke without taking her eyes off her, "don't make me do this. I will shoot you in the leg if you don't put the gun down. Cameron's trained me in weapons use for five years, I've got another daughter made lieutenant in Tech-Com. So I'm not screwing around here. "

Claire Phillip's sounded like a cop. Sarah disliked women who sounded like cops, intensely. "That is so funny bitch I was going to wound you real bad and save you the trouble ."Sarah had managed to wipe the sweat from her temple on the strap of of her shirt. Her eyes were stinging with salt and she was forcing herself not to blink._ Jesus the Eagle was heavy_. Sarah hadn't strategized this far ahead. Claire had. Soon Sarah's arms were going to start shaking . She'd either fire on Claire or have put the gun down. With every passing second Sarah's forearms were going to begin getting more tense, already it would be hard for her to squeeze the trigger and not tug on it reducing the accuracy of her aim.

Sarah Connor was good, but Claire had a better teacher.

There was the sound of a distant police siren coming their way. Sarah's eyes silently communicated only two words:

_Oh fuck_

* * *

The first cop banged on the door and yelled . "Come to the front door now and stand outside the house"."

A small crowd had gathered outside Sarah's new house. Gunshots were not uncommon in the hills surrounding Red Valley but this wasn't downtown LA, it was Hicksville : Someone discharges a firearm indoors, in a quiet street like this and the cops get called every time .

Sarah opened the door and blinked in the torchlight. A second cop seemed to be deliberately trying to blind her with with a his torch . Sarah put up her free hand to shield her eyes. In her other hand was a club hammer. Her hair and clothing were saturated.

"Erm, do you know where to turn the water off ." Sarah asked in the most sheepish voice she could muster. The cop could see the whole outline of her upper body through her wet tank top. He kept his eyes professionally focused above her neck.

The cop moved in front of Sarah and looked through the front door so he could see inside the house.

"Chuck", he gestured to his partner over with a nod of his head. When he glanced inside the living room, his partner turned off his torch , grinned and put his weapon away as well.

Claire was braced against the exposed timber frame section of wires and piping hung down between the timbers. She was braced against there frame of the wall with her thumb over a copper pipe. She looked seriously drenched and pissed-off as well. The cop re-holstered his gun

"We were trying to nail the boards onto the wall." Sarah looked down at the floor like she was anticipating getting totally slammed for what she was about to say next ," and, I er, I put a nail through the cold water pipe."

The officer looked at the 4lb hammer in Sarah's hand. There was the sound of muffled laughter from the small group of neighbors , who'd already began filing home, having realized Red Valley wasn't the scene of a mass shooting tonight.

"Erm Lady," The cop spoke surprising respectfully and without a trace of sarcasm he informed her:" that hammer, its kinda overkill for the job you are trying to do. You want to use a claw hammer for nails. That' hammer ,its for for breaking bricks , you know stuff like that

'Chuck' shone his torch along the edge of the path and walked over to a metal plate in the concrete."The water cut off valve is here. You lift up the metal flap like this, put your hand down here like this, and you turn , its stiff and that's it, its turning now, and there you go, no more flood in your house."

The officer stood up and sighed. "Lady, can I ask you not to start real loud hammering at ten thirty O'clock at night. People get kind of jumpy around here, you know they watch the news, see shootings in the big city , hear bangs, then they ring us."

The cop went o the car and returned with a pad of triplicate paper "Now I just need your name, and we'll file small incident report OK."

As the cops were leaving Chuck, turned around. "You know the nail through the pipe thing, don't worry, Mrs. Reese we've all done it. Nothing to be embarrassed about. Just keep the noise down, OK. "

* * *

Sarah shut the door behind her, rested her elbows on her knees and exhaled. Claire was in the kitchen going through her cupboards.

"What the hell are you doing?

I'm making myself coffee."

"No you're not ". Growled Sarah

Claire held up her right wrist and turned it to Sarah." I did two years in Century no coffee, no goddamn fluid except rainwater out of oil barrels. Coffee is a luxury. like everything else 'round here. You know what? I can go without."

"Oh yeh, well I did five in Nicaragua , so don't you even try to lecture me on luxury." Sarah hissed. She glanced around. "Your ' Tin Can's stolen my goddamn SUV as well."

"Cameron probably thought it was safer than my vehicle. Don't worry she can drive anything, perfectly."

"What the hell's that supposed to make me feel : OK about this?"

"You know, I don't actually care about how you feel right now, Sarah."

"Well right back at you. You going to tell me where she's taken john?"

"Nope."

"Thought you'd say that ."

"Sarah, I don't actually know, but she will ring my cell when she's determined where she's heading and if I'm not other end of this line when she calls you are going to have one hell of a Job convincing her to let you anywhere near John until, oh about 2027, do you understand Connor?"

"This ain't over, don't you even go thinking it is ." Sarah glared to reinforce her point.

* * *

Both women sat opposite each other in the Kevlar reinforced chairs . They had their Cells on the arms of their chairs. On the other arm the rested their weapons. Each was staring to the side of the other . A window was open the temperature was dropping in the room. Claire and Sarah were in wet clothing and already their arms were beginning to goose-bump and their bodies shivering .Neither of them was going to be the first to stand up and get a towel ,Sarah certainly wasn't going to offer any dry clothes.

She glanced down at Claire's black combat trousers. She hadn't noticed before, there was a hole in the fabric and a small amount of watery blood was seeping onto her carpet.

"Hey. I did get you didn't I? When you rolled"

"No you didn't." Claire pursed her lips together and shook her head . " It's just a graze. its nothing." Brown and green eyes locked, each pair battling the other with their intensity.

It was eight hours until morning. Cameron would instruct John to leave his Cell off until they reached their destination. Neither woman in the room intended to say another word .

It was going to be hell of a long night, and morning.


	3. Chapter 3

_OK this is getting moved to Chapter 5- and it's going to be rewritten as dialogue between Claire and Sarah. Oh and there's going to be Charlie, on the first leg of his road-trip making sense of Jameron as well, but that's not the real point of our interest, is it? _


	4. Chapter 4

_I want to keep this story tight. That's why deleted the previous chapter. I had this idea that it would be better to let Claire Young tell her story to Sarah and use it as a way to build up the tension. I don't know if Sarah genuinely will trust Claire, or if she will use Claire's extended trust as a means to find John . _

_Charlie's not exactly bowled over by events either, and I don't know if he's ready to accept Cameron yet , or if he can. Maybe he's going along with it because he hasn't got much choice. _

_Exactly what would you do if a Grey showed up and you 'son's' girlfriend started interrogating him your living room?_

_All drama and human observation, no tanks . Let me know what you think._

* * *

"John wake up" John had been out cold, sleeping deep and dreamless. There was a firm edge in Cameron's voice .

"Wake up John"

John Connor opened his eyes. For some reason there was a man he didn't recognize in Charlie's living room . At first , being only half awake, John thought the man must be really tall because the top of his head was grazing the light fitting .

At same time his mind was trying to reason, his reflexes kicked him out from under the sleeping roll and onto his feet. John now saw Cameron had the guy by the back of his Jacket lifting him off his feet . She was holding him out above of her at arms length, his feet and and hands were cable-tied and his head lolled to one side like he'd been hung. Cameron was the least 'human-like' John had ever seen her. Her eyes told him she'd had gone somewhere else. He had no doubt what she was, but for the first time Cameron really scared him.

"That's human, right?" John managed to choke out.

"Correct"

"Is he.. dead?"

"No not dead. I have interrogated him. He's ready to speak to you when he regains consciousness . He admitted he came to kill Charlie."

Cameron tried to read John's expression: Why was he, of all people, suddenly afraid of her?- "It was a controlled asphyxiation ." Her voice softened and trailed away.

Wide-eyed, John was backing against the sofa . He had messed with Cameron, play wrestling back at her mum's house, and of course she beat him hands down, never hurting him , pinning him into a lock , once briefly kissing when he surrendered. She explained later the kiss was to help initiate bonding, she even managed to make a detailed psychological explanation of various human 'bonding' sequences sound seductive. Even knowing what she was , John never _wanted_ to fully imagine she had this kind of full-on capability- Now there was a fifteen stone half-dead guy looking like he'd been in an auto collision hovering in mid air in his room at the end of her arm. John shuddered as his mind reeled to catch up. He hit autopilot and began dragging on his boots.

"We going to have to tell Charlie ,explain to him. Look there's a way of doing this with Charlie, we do it quietly and gently.- Like, can you even put that guy down down somewhere, please."

Cameron didn't appear to grasp the human concept of breaking information gently and turned her acquisition examining it as if it were a specimen .

"Why don't I just show Charlie now?"

_God how can she do this stuff so calmly? " _Because. . . we don't want to freak Charlie out, he might just go and do something totally 'drove'."

"He will become frightened, because of this and react?"

"No , not exactly, maybe more because of you"

Me?"

"Yes you. We've got to think . Will you just put him down, now."

Cameron dropped the unconscious bundle onto the sofa and began applying silver duct tape to his mouth, carefully checking his nose and neck weren't fractured and airways were sufficient to maintain an oxygen flow to his brain.

Cameron listened very carefully to John whose voice had dropped to a nervous whisper. In summary, John was requesting her to demonstrate to Charlie primarily she wasn't a 'psychopathic killing machine', she was highly selective of her targets and only responded to threats to John. Because Charlie was emotionally connected to John, if he were terminated by hostile agents then it would harm John. She could not state this directly, but rather demonstrate that she was concerned for Charlie and was willing to extend her protection to him . At no point was she to tell Charlie she had calculated it was less harmful to protect Charlie than terminate him, thus reducing risk to John via him. -Charlie would not understand the significance of her decision. As she was reasoning through John's request, she ran her hand over the neck of her 'specimen', her finger-ends located a specific nerve cluster . On location she twisted the nodule hard enough to prolong blackout for about another hour.

" You're going to have to show Charlie the 'other side' to you, before we can even start talking to him about this."

"Gain his trust?"

"Yeh, just sell the guy a tractor before we break it to him about robots from the future"

" Cyborgs" Cameron corrected. "A tractor?"

"Look, make like he's my Dad, I'm your boyfriend, and do what you did with me when we first met."

"Smile at him ?"

"Yeh, you even done that yet?"

"No."

* * *

Charlie was asleep lying on his side when felt prodding in his shoulder. He groaned . The prodding started again. It was early , John's girlfriend was standing at the side the his bed and she was examining him with intense curiosity as he came to his senses.

Charlie began sitting up in bed " What ?" He tried to sound slightly irritated, just to keep that little bit of authority needed with kids this age.

"Did you sleep well Charlie?"

"As well as can be expected. Do you mind me asking , why are you waking me up at erm. . . ," he glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside . Between two flashing red dots it read 6.56am,. . . " this time in the morning, on my day off?"

"You need to get up now please. John and I have been awake and we would like to discuss something with you. It is a matter of urgency"

The smell of bacon and eggs wafted in from the kitchen, and that was odd , because he hadn't bought anything like in that for about a week.

"I have to go, John's bacon is burning, please do get up." As she was about to leave Charlie to get dressed out of the bedroom her expression became serious : "Sarah was a inadequate role model for John, in terms of food preparation", and with that she left Charlie to get up.

Charlie got out of bed and began pulling on his pants. Cameron was telling the truth , Sarah was a lousy cook, but hell, that girl had the weirdest, driest sense of humor.

* * *

When he got to the kitchen it seemed bigger than it had recently . That's because there was now more kitchen , less garbage.

John was turning the contents of the frying pan with a spatula , and Cameron was standing next to him, critically examining his efforts.

Charlie looked around the recently reorganized kitchen and grinned. " Hey John, this is amazing, how you do it?"

"Oh we got up early and wanted to surprise you. There's coffee on the table if you want to sit down. Just how you like it first thing, strong'n black."

Charlie sat down . Looking over the table, it was laid out, three places, plates, knives forks. John was there at the stove, flipping eggs under his girlfriend's supervision . This was like like a dream, waking up and finding John still here. All Charlie ever wanted was a family he could provide for, and now John had come back to him . Charlie been working double shifts since Sarah left and he had some extra cash . Maybe he'd find out what John and Cameron were into 'into' , take them out to the mall and buy stuff with them. He enjoyed spending an afternoon buying things with John, he wasn't like other kids, he was always so appreciative, even if was just a pair of brake pads they'd taken all afternoon to find. Charlie sipped at his hot coffee and reigned-in his emotions. Even if it stemmed from good intentions it was bad idea to come over to teenagers so full on. Almost creepy. You've got to let them indicate and ask for things first for things first, let them take a bit of control . There was more to this, they wanted to "tell him something" - in their own time.

John began serving out the food. Two big plates for them. One minute bacon roll for Cameron.

Charlie sat back and at examined her as she took her place. She wasn't skinny enough to be one of those kids that didn't eat, or chucked up , and ended up weighing four stone , collapsing in school . Kids like that felt like they were made of air when you and your partner stretchered them out to the ambulance.

Charlie put a fork-full of food to his mouth, immediately recognizing it was the best thing he'd eaten in weeks. These kids were really trying to soften him up for something big- now what was it that caused their mum's to fall out? Pregnancy , yep pregnancy was about in line with this level of treatment - Maybe they'd reversed Sarah's SUV into his car last night when they'd parked up. He hoped it was something like that - the flat was too small for these two _and_ a baby. Exactly how old was Cameron anyway? Charlie decided to play it out.

"Say where did you get this stuff? I don't remember buying bacon, eggs, waffles."

"I picked it up on patrol."

John winced . Despite the gentling down and making herself 'homely' Cameron was going in too quick.

"Patrol?" Charlie looked puzzled. John was hiding something and he was quick to cut in.

"Yeh , it's like a walk or a jog around the block , pick up provisions, you know check on the SUV , check around a new neighborhood .She doesn't sleep some nights, er much -"

Cameron was slicing her roll into four very equal portions as she picked John's cue. " There was a twenty-four hour shop in the gas station on Eastman Drive. It's stocked with provisions.

Ok now this was definitely a double act . Charlie glanced at Cameron's slight frame. Under John's checkered shirt she was wearing a black vest olive green combats, hardly scary vigilante stuff.

Charlie sat back in his chair- "Its real dangerous out there. I get calls all kind of messy stuff, even ballistics trauma, there's some real crazy people out in LA, especially after dark.

She calmly returned his gaze. "It is dangerous Charlie." Cameron spoke softly , cutting another strip out of her roll spearing it dead center with her fork. Charlie couldn't help noticing how neatly she did this, in fact it occurred to him how neatly and calmly she did everything , how she didn't seem to have a stress level.

He changed the subject . "You tidied up as well, and so quietly"

"I woke John up to help with the cleaning" , Cameron smiled briefly in John's direction.

John nodded enthusiastically, " Yep four forty in the morning and she had me loading garbage bags into the trash."

Charlie shot a look at John. He'd have to have private words about this. No matter how hard any man falls for a woman, (and he could see why John had fallen for Cameron) , there are natural boundaries and rights. One is the right to have you own space and to make a little mess in that space. Men go stir- crazy without this. Charlie had been lucky , Sarah was relatively easy on man-mess.

Whatever it was these two kids were trying to tell him it was time to bring it into the open. Charlie placed his cutlery down on the empty plate and pushed it to one side.

That was delicious. Thank you. Shall we stop going around in circles an you two get around to what it is you are trying to tell me?"

John glanced around the room, he looked real nervous.

Cameron placed her knife down at an angle so it was exactly bisecting her empty plate. " Its about your security Charlie."

Charlie let out a sigh of relief,- "You got me up at this time in the morning to talk to me about household security . Look, the locks on the doors- I've already called the landlord, he's sending a maintenance guy out to do something about them . For now, turn the key and kick the bottom of the door, they work."

" Charlie," John butted in, "Cameron is really worried about your safety, and, we've got to tell you the truth, that's why we're here. I wanted to a bit more time for you to get to know Cameron, but this is how things worked out. She really likes you Charlie." John added hopefully.

"Is this to do with the FBI?"

"Not yet, " Cameron shook her head.

"So what is it do do with?"

John plucked up the courage, now or never "Well er ,we've got something, you need to see."

_OK can't it be that bad._ Charlie tried to read Johns expression

The best John could do was give him a reassuring smile. It didn't quite come off and the corner of his mouth twitched nervously.

"John" Charlie sat back in his chair "Ok let me guess you got up in the middle of the night, grabbed a glass of water, and when you got back to the living room you forgot where you were , walked into the TV and now its busted, hey I don't care about..."

" John has not damaged any of your possessions." Cameron stated flatly and stood up. "Please, we need to discuss this now."

Even if he had damaged anything Charlie got the clear message that anyone complaining about John breaking something would have to get past her first.

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL !"

There was a garbage man sitting upright on Charlie's sofa. He had silver tape covering his mouth and his feet and arms were cable-tied. He was making muted grunting sounds . As Cameron moved towards him the sounds became muffled shouting, and Charlie read pure terror in his eyes. The tied-up guy seemed to be trying to get anywhere he could , away from her. Cameron reached forward and deftly peeled the tape from his mouth and he began heaving for breath. Cameron stepped back to stand between John and Charlie, and the man tied-up on the Sofa. Charlie stood frozen on the spot.

"Yo. Grey, hello. " John shouted over Cameron's shoulder.

The guy looked up at John , taking a deep breath he shook his head, a loser's grin began spreading across his mouth as he spoke. He knew he was going to die, here.

" Call your Metal off_ General_, she's already busted one of my Goddam legs. I aint going nowhere." When he said _General_, he managed to convey it with the most disrespect he possibly could . Cameron took a step forward and the Grey instinctively tried to pull his head back .

"Cam" John spoke quietly . Cameron stopped advancing towards him.

John was watching Charlie to gauge his reactions ," You even going to ask?" Charlie felt John's arm on his shoulder.

Apart from his mouth Charlie's body didn't really move. His eyes were kind of bulgy as well. _"OK John why is there a garbage man , who looks like he's been in an auto collision, tied up on my sofa_?" As he spoke Charlie realized, without any he was voicing his thoughts.

'You want to answer that tied-up man?"

The Grey tried to look like John was spitting on him as he spoke "Fuck you kid- you ain't Him, you probably ain't never going to be Him so cut the crap. I don't have to answer to you or your goddamn childminder, if she's going to do it,order her get it over with . I aint playing no more games. You , Dixon and that heretical piece of Metal, you're aint even history, _you never were_. "

"Charlie, Charlie stay with us here." Charlie could feel John hand rubbing him on his back,- his mind was assembling the pieces. He could hear Agent Ellison's voice, this time Charlie ignored the sarcasm. ... _Luke Skywalker type, leader of a scrappy band of rebels_... When Charlie looked at Cameron he saw death in her eyes , and that was it: Sure she was pretty as a painting , but right now she radiated less than zero conscience , and this guy was inhumanly scared of something about her. "Metal?" _This is crazy, no way._

"Tell Charlie who John is and why you were attempting to murder Mr. Dixon." Cameron prompted . Her voice was falling out of pitch into monotone.

"Why the hell should I?" The Grey stared dead ahead."

"Because I believe your request was for me to get 'it' over with. You are still in a position to bargain the terms of your termination, hence you might consider explaining to Charlie why you wanted to kill him."

" OK" he sighed " but I want it quick."

"Quick is agreeable."

The Grey looked up at Charlie , he was actually conditioned into following commands from Metal, especially when he hadn't had any alternative for the past three years but to follow. Metal were mostly right anyway. It saved thinking. Thinking is what started getting people killed in the first place.

"Dixon , Charlie, this is nothing personal, it's about my kids. See in the future my kids are in a death camp and to keep them alive I volunteered to come back here and take you out. Now you understand ? "

"A death camp?" Where the hell is this." Charlie found himself bewildered, treading the nightmare path between reality and disbelief that had just opened up in front of him.

"- Just down the road Charlie, Century Point. Hundreds of thousands of us all starving behind the wire.- She'll tell you all about it. Isn't that right Metal, you had the last of the human race in cages, we were going down, and the Metal said if we wanted to stop our extinction, we could help them, work with them, it was the only way the human race would survive. For those of us who agreed ,Century and the other cages got better, we started getting organized: food, water, latrines, proper work. It all went well until Connor showed up , then the killing started again, and then he went and blew the shit out of Century, took most of the humans through the wire with him, on the run. That's when The War restarted ."

The Grey glared at John Connor.

"See it's all your fault kid- future of life on earth, war, peace, it's all down to - Charlie sorry, you were just a low-grade, loose end that needed trying up. That's why they sent a bum like me to do it. You're not worth big expenditure. "

He turned to examine John Connor again. " Don't worry kid they're building stuff you wouldn't believe to come after you, and your mommy, and your cyborg girlfriend here, they can't stop it- it's over. Give it up. Now can I die quickly, please?'

Then the Grey sat impassively . He'd done as she'd commanded . If Cameron killed him quickly now it was for the best. At least metal, unlike humans were straight about these things and kept their word.

Instead she and John were turning and walking away . Dixon looked shocked and John was leading him by the arm out of the room.

* * *

"John- Please will you start loading the load the car. I want to talk to Charlie for a moment, alone, if that's Ok with you Charlie?" In contrast to what he'd just witnessed, Cameron's entire manner changed and she seemed so gentle,'normal' with him and John. Charlie agreed. Did he even have a choice?

John took the keys to the SUV off her and shouldered up a kit bag.

When John was out of earshot she put her hand on Charlie's forearm . It felt warm, alive, not as he'd expected it to. If this didn't gain his trust, nothing would. Cameron decided she was taking a huge risk here.

"Charlie, John doesn't know this but I _know _you. My mum knows you as well." Cameron nodded never breaking eye contact. "There's something else. . . and I am entrusting you with a secret, and you are never to disclose this to John, or anyone else , until the time is right . You must promise"

Cameron whispered in Charlie's ear :" In the future , I'm ..."

Charlies eyes grew wide , what she disclosed was just another huge piece of craziness , but it fitted the rest and made perfect sense.

When it sunk in he glanced around and whispered back :"O.k. I won't tell him, I won't tell anyone. I understand now, I think ."

Charlie paused for thought then reached out his hand. Cameron responded and shook it.

" I promise."

* * *

As Cameron was driving them out of LA Charlie asked:

"Out of interest. Why didn't you kill the guy, why did you cut him a deal?"

Cameron glanced in the rear view, " Because to kill him now would be a strategic error. He was simply a time marker. If he doesn't assassinate you now it is probable, though not certain, John and I came to prevent it. If he doesn't leave time-reports for his handlers to pick up in secure information caches it is certain we prevented him for carrying out his mission, hence in the future, hostile elements could theoretically send a team back to point in time before we arrive and I terminate him. On our arrival , yesterday, we would have walked into a trap and you would already be dead. It is not in the Grey's interests to communicate his failure on this occasion because, as he explained, his handlers will murder his children in the future in response to that failure. It is better we allow him try again to track us down, than deal with the more advanced team they send after him. There is a much lower probability of him finding us than a more advanced team."

Charlie let out a deep sigh and glanced over his shoulder . Through the rear of the car he could see LA was vanishing behind him, time was suddenly complex. He glanced into the front . Johnny-boy was kicked back and plugged into his Walkman, Paradise City tapping out against the headrest, every now and again Cameron took her eyes off the road and looked at him like she'd look at no one else on earth. Every now and then John caught her looking. In an odd way John seemed totally at peace -like this 'new' world was so normal , and got the full hit of the truth of it. This was_ his_ world.

Charlie always sensed there was real something special about this kid, but not this damn special.

They were out of the city limits heading South. His mobile was ringing. It was Sarah Connor .

So ,exactly what the hell was he expected to do now?


	5. Chapter 5

_OK mostly dialogue, but I think if you got a taste for this, you'll enjoy it. You know, I must be a bit weird, as a kid I always liked these kind of scenes __between the action__ best ._

* * *

Sarah Connor had been thinking, in fact she had been doing little else whilst she'd been sitting around waiting for it to get daylight. The old fear had returned to settle in her . It was unwelcome but oddly reassuring in its familiarity. What the fuck-else should she expect from life : She was John Connor's mother.

Now it was getting light and Sarah decided she was cold, wet , her legs were going to sleep and having spent the last nine hours in a mental standoff with a cyborg's 'mother', she was coming around to the position that this battle of wills was getting neither of them anywhere.

During the night Sarah assessed Claire was , in her own way , probably as tough and hardheaded as she was . If Claire had been grazed by a .44 round in the leg than she hadn't even complained once about it all night. In different circumstances Sarah might even have regarded Claire as 'her kind of woman'. Claire Phillips was definitely correct about one thing , Sarah thought, no way was fate and future-time ever going to let her to do normal. Come to think of it she'd never figured out what the hell normal was.

_Fuck it_. Sarah got up. " I'm making Coffee , you want some?

Claire eyed her with caution.

Suit yourself , I'm offering a truce. Coffee's optional

Claire heaved herself out of the chair . "Actually , I'm going to take leak. Claire holstered her Glock. " You good, good as they say your word is Connor?

"Who says my word's good?"

"In the future people that matter say your word is good. It would be a shame for that to get written out before it ever happens."

Sarah looked at the Eagle on the arm of the chair

"Take the damn thing with you if you don't trust me. Sugar?"

"I haven't agreed to Coffee yet."

"Bathroom's, through there on the right, and , there's a field kit under the sink." Sarah glanced down at Claire's injured leg.

"Ok , two sugars. Milk still tastes like the inside of a cow, and it screws my guts .Don't suppose you've got SMA on the shelf ?"

"Nope," Sarah shook her head " clean out of baby food."

"Then black, two sugars I guess."

* * *

Sarah watched as Claire walked towards the bathroom , there was no sign of a limp , Maybe the .44 had nicked her living a stinging flesh wound . For a woman in her forties Claire had moved as fast an oiled-up rattlesnake when she had a gun pointed at her. Either that, or Sarah was getting slow and that damn hand- cannon had been seriously heavy.

Claire sat and sipped at her coffee, Sarah caught a glimpse of fresh new dressing above her sock under her her trouser leg. No bullshit, she had been hit.

Claire examined Sarah calculating how much she could tell her. After all , Claire reasoned that was is about: Information because Sarah Connor doesn't do nice homely chat, not now not ever. Claire waited for the questioning to start.

"Ok Claire, so really, how do you end up being mother to _somet__hing_ like that ? Go on, I've tried every which way for nine hours and I give up. I can't get my head around it."

Claire didn't bite and there was no way she was going to get angry and let Connor turn a truce into a her personal interrogation session

"Why shouldn't I be her mother? That's like me asking you how you became John's mother . I guess the answer's obvious if you think it through ."

"Yeh, but you see, I remember giving birth to John, and that's not the kind of thing any woman forgets."

"I remember giving birth to both my children Sarah."

"So where did Cameron come from?"

"I'm surprised at you , you got to think bigger now, outside the little box."

Sarah Connor raised an eyebrow.

"For example Sarah you know what you really need to get through Judgment Day?"

Sarah shook her head and tried to not look too interested. Was this a joke?

"No one's going to tell you this detail but..."

"But what?"

"You're gonna need, industrial size tubs of sanitation fluid plus a pile a cleaning rag."

"You kidding me right?" Sarah seemed she was genuinely curious

"Nope, wish I was kidding here . Sarah , in case you get transferred-in from whatever rock you're hiding under on JD , Cheyenne Mountain is built on springs , they're designed to stabilize and absorb a nuclear shock-wave , except the strategic planners and engineers who built the place got it wrong. Instead of one directed shock wave, for twenty one hours we got hit by mutliples and deep strata after-shocks, so " . . . Claire pulled a really sour face... " Ok on JD , the inside of Cheyenne is bouncing around like we're in a force nine . Kids got motion sick and started throwing up and then all the kids started throwing up , then adults. By the end of it , well you can guess it was pretty gruesome. We blew the entire sanitation stock in two days .

"No shit, you spent the whole of JD cleaning up kidie -puke?"

"Yep. kind took our mind off things."

Sarah made like she'd eased up a bit . She seemed as if she was interested and wanting to listen Maybe Claire told a good story.

Claire picked the cue " That's when I got meet Cameron . She came and checked on my daughter Ali and when she did she gave me the weirdest look. You'd never believe a machine could look at you like that. After that some connection had been made and for the next few days, if she was in the same room ,I could feel her scanning . Every time I glanced around she was there, just looking at me."

You see, like yours, my time line is crossed and I'd run into Cameron once before but Cameron as she's going to be some of years after my time . But this Cameron in Cheyenne was wiped, and '_not long out the box_ ' as we say , and of course John, being John, he has this philosophy that Cameron has to figure stuff out for herself so she can learn , and he didn't exactly tell her who I am or more importantly who my six year old daughter Ali was- Oh Cameron figured it out real quick, don't ever underestimate her. She's incredibly bright."

"Well who was your daughter?"

"Who do you think Sarah ?Look at my hair, look at my eyes, my face." Clare tilted her head and made an emotionless expression

"So Cameron was reprogrammed to respond to you?"

Claire shifted in her chair " if only " he gaze shifted somewhere else, as if she was recalling some events in vivid detail

" After a while me an Cameron start talking. Now I know what she is and why she is, but I need to hear it from her own mouth . So she she explains to me in that objective almost innocent way she has in these matters. She tells me how 2026 Ali , my daughter is captured in combat. How her organics' get 'recycled' and how Cameron reconstructed Ali's personality in herself. Then she goes on to tell me can't even feel sorry for what she did, or feel guilt but every time she sees me it registers as a kind of pain. It was confusing for her. Could I please help her resolve this?

"So you play happy families with it.?" Sarah almost hissed in disgust.

" No! I slapped her so dammed hard across the face then told her she was a murdering metal bitch, and what she is learning to feel is her own personal hell for being what she is , and, I hoped that she did live for a thousand years, and, she never forgets for one single moment knowing what it feels like to take a life and be hated for it. Furthermore, if she ever came anywhere near my family inside Cheyenne bunker or anywhere else again, I swore I would take her apart myself. I left her standing, staring."

"But you forgave her, eventually?"

"I never forgave what Metal does, how could I ?"

"I don't get this"

"Cameron did things most humans wouldn't . Little things that over the months added up . Prime example?"

Sarah brushed her hand through her hair and nodded indicating she was still listening.

" After JD no one argued with John Connor, and in those days you got on a did what he said, kept all of us alive. So maybe five months after JD I was on search and rescue detail, John put us in the same platoon. Cameron headed up some of the missions I was on, like I said you son's got a way of makinf people do things.

"So, we get a heat trace inside a house, last one standing on this part of the street ."

"We go in , there's two adults , husband and wife sitting next to each other, just like they were watching T.V. except they've been dead for weeks, months Suicide, not that unusual after JD Sarah, we found plenty gave it all up."

"Upstairs, we break open the bedroom door a we find a ten year old kid inside, alive . The rooms' been loaded floor to ceiling , chocolate and bottled water. The kid's got some mental handicap, covered in shit and radation burns, but still alive. The platoon leader decides put door back into he frame , screw it tight it and leave the kid where he is."

"Cameron's squad finishes their sweep and they RV with us, and she asks him to explain his decision. Now I was on those stairs and I witnessed this Sarah. Cameron asks why the decision was made. The Platoon leader tells her the kid's physically disabled and mentally retarded and would be a liability: No point in in bringing him in and feeding him rations, might as well give him the bullet now ."

"She asks the PL to define 'disabled' and 'mentally' retarded."

"As he's talking he realizes she's got him boxed into a corner of the landing, so it just her and him , and she just staring real hard at him in full default mode. Halfway through what he's rambling on about he's figured actually he's giving Cameron the best argument yet for her and her kind to go ahead and exterminate what's left of _us_. By the time he's finished ,she's made him see he's been talking pure bullshit , without saying a word back herself."

"So what happens?"

"Cameron takes the kid back, cleans him up, spends time with him , allocates a young guy who lost his entire family and needs someone to care for, to stop him going crazy himself . The kid's name's Danny . Turns out later , the reason Danny didn't die in that room is he was born with an abnormally high resistance to septicemia. Bio- Tech use it, and that weird gene saves thousands of lives. Plus, later, in my time, Danny's corporal in stores and if you want bootlaces that year , he's your man. Cameron, by the way gets anything she wants , he's put her up own shelf."

"- Don't you see Sarah , war fucks peoples heads, so anything can sound reasonable at the time . What I witnessed Cameron constantly do was ensure those around her held onto their reason."

"So you did forgive her, eventually?"

"Lets' put it like this Connor, I watched her over months and figured it wasn't the Metal making these kind of decisions. Her consciousness is built on a platform, and every damn time I looked at her I saw my daughter looking right back at me out of her eyes and she did what my Ali would have done , not a Machine would decide , or do . Don't get me wrong Connor, its not sweetness an light we've had fallings-out over the years , but the residual part of my daughter is alive in there. "

"Fallings out?"

" Yep , she' can be the most damn self- centered , stubborn creature on the planet a times , even though she knows better."

Claire smiled and shook her head. "Hey that's enough, I'm never going to convince you on this am I?"

No, I'm beginning to understand, but why didn't you stop it happening?

"Because I couldn't , because time doesn't work like that. If it's meant to happen it does, one way or another."

"You sound like you feel it was meant to happen."

"No I sound like a mother who has learned the screwed up logic of time and knows what she can do, and accepts what she couldn't , and tries to live with the consequences like everyone else."

Sarah said nothing for a while, there was a big something Claire wasn't telling her. Why was Cameron sent back to protect John. Claire hardly mentioned John in the future and when she did it was always in the same breath as Cameron. _Wait a moment -No fucking way._

"You said you met Cameron twice before, and she was different- She knew you?"

" Yep she knew me . The first time I didn't know her. The second she got me and my family inside Cheyenne Mountain, a few hours before it all kicked off."

"So when was the first time ?"

"1999, two days from now, I was just a kid, seventeen. My friend Shelly borrowed her mum's car and we'd drove to to Santa Barbara , made like the car had broken down and we had to stay the night in a motel. First night away from home, and Cameron shows up ."

"You going to tell what that was about?"

"Nope, that's classified Sarah , and not without good reason."

Sarah Connor did her best to not look put out that she was not an intimate to at least one of the future's secrets. She stretched and got up. " I'm going to use the bathroom freshen up, I got to think about all this . You help yourself to what's in the fridge if you're feeling hungry. Might be half a pizza John left , don't know how old it is ."

* * *

Sarah gently lifted the lid on the laundry basket and reached down inside and pulled out her Glock and a spare clip. Very quietly she opened the bathroom window and climbed out. Within seconds she was across the yard under Claire's truck. Resistance always left an emergency set of keys taped or wired somewhere , so where the hell were they?

As she was trying to pull off the heat deflector to the exhaust she became aware of a pair of boots standing next to the truck. Then a set of keys appeared ,hanging in mid air between the underside of the truck and the concrete she was lying on.

_Shit . Busted_.

"You know I've always wanted to go back to Santa Barbara." Claire came through loud and clear .

"And Sarah, please don't try and shoot me in the leg again."

"Why the hell not." Came the muffled voice from under the truck.

" Because ,one ,something happened left me looking like I ran into into a minefield , and hey that's right I'm all Carbon nanofibres and organic layer from the waist down now, and two, it Goddamn well hurts when you shoot me . OK. Sarah? So I suggest to you, between here and Santa-B you don't say one more word about cyborgs, OK Sarah. You keep it to yourself . Now are we going or not?'


	6. Chapter 6

_OK ,this is bit of an experiment for me. I wanted to see if I could write action into the drama- let me know if you like it. John, Cameron, and a rather reluctant Charlie, take Ellison 'hostage' and hijack an FBI helicopter after a bungled attempt to take them out on the Pacific Highway. I've also tried to write it in the way Charlie speaks and thinks. It's a good simple language for telling this kind of story. Hope you like it .  
_

Out of the rear window Charlie glanced over the concrete safety barriers . Five hundred feet below Pacific waves rolled in, breaking white feathers over the rocks and golden sand . When Cameron pushed Sarah's truck through the bends she kept a precise distance away from the white lines and barriers at the edge of the road. Sure, her being around made him feel safer for John. But the truth? Cameron scared the crap out of him, or rather , the future she represented did.

John was up front tapping away to Civil War , Guns N Roses. Charlie noticed John had gradually turned up the volume on his Walkman the further they got out of LA. Now it was so loud anyone in the car could make out the scratchy lyrics .

_My hands are tied_  
_The billions shift from side to side_

Charlie reached forward to put his hand on John's shoulder . He caught a pair of brown eyes in the mirror instantly locking onto him for a fraction of a second before Cameron switched back to following the highway . She didn't miss a single thing moving into John personal space , ever. He shook John's shoulder. John turned around making like he hadn't a clue why Charlie was doing this . It wasn't arrogance , Charlie realized , John wasn't arrogant , 'though if you didn't know him like Charlie did, it would be easy to take it for that. It was a kind of kidding around between the two of them, one that Sarah never quite got. When they first met, John had been so shy and quiet , so easy to fall in behind Sarah and jump when she said so Charlie decided to try to toughen him up , socially.

Without taking the earphones off , John asked " what's up ?'

_Like you don't know already , and hey, _Charlie had been noticing something new in John's manner_,_ there was a recent hardness and depth in there_ , don't you give me that I'm now the salvation of mankind I can do what the hell I want -look ,bullshit. _Charlie now had the opposite problem to the one he faced in the previous months -got to keep the kids feet on the ground whilst all this crap was going on around him._  
_

"Too loud Johnny ,it's going to hurt your ears, so turn it down yeh" . At this point ,had Sarah been up front driving, she would have cut in and been yelling at John to turn the Goddamn noise down , which he invariably did.

Still playing the game John frowned and took the earphones out . When he did, he caught Cameron watching him out of the corner of her eye . She spoke in a barely audible voice. " Charlie's worried you're going to impair you hearing."

"What ?" John hadn't quite caught what she said.

Cameron immediately quietly repeated herself. John made 'duh, eyes 'up at the roof of the car. As as he was getting it , Charlie watched on in amazement . _(She was a machine right? No damn machine can do this stuff. _) Cameron stroked her chin with her index finger with a big 'human' grin spreading over her face. John couldn't do much more than shake his head. Charlie was watching John being disarmed in one move. He turned the Walkman down, no argument , no loss of face . No yelling. Perfect surrender. Jesus H. Christ, Cameron knew how to handle him.

So who the exactly the hell is this John Connor? Charlie wondered.

* * *

Five miles south of Ventura, running parallel with the old Highway 1 . Terrain had flattened, on the coast side of the road neat lines of tinned roofed homes and holiday-lets spread out along edge of the beach .

Cameron scanned from side to side as she was driving. Charlie figured she was taking in much more than the road. There was something else, an unspoken communication between her and John. The couple didn't have to say much , at least not in words , it was like they knew each others mind. John-always watching her out of the corner of his eye, quietly smiling - Charlie figured sitting near to her made John happy, it seemed to make her happy, like they were basking in each others presence.

They'd passed a holiday car park built up to the seawall . It was maybe a hundred yards away from the new road. Cameron had turned her head to examine something in more detail . When she did John automatically sat up in his seat, turned the Walkman off and removed his earphones.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure yet."

John checked his belt.

"Hey ,guys you want to let me in on what's happening here?" Charlie asked hopefully.

Cameron stared back at him for a moment she'd suddenly become much more serious

"It's probably nothing to worry about." Six words thought Charlie, and 'probably' was the was one that stuck out the most ,even though she'd smoothed it over in her usual reassuring manner.

Charlie had a moments unreality . John was pulling out a compact machine gun, a Mini Uzi from under the seat and his boy was checking the clip.

Cameron spread out her hand to stop him.

I have calculated that won't be necessary

She glanced back in the mirror at Charlie

"In all probability."

Cameron pulled off the main highway and looped back along the beach road. About a mile in she pulled into curb . It was the kind of place tourists had came to maybe twenty years ago, until the the old road had been bypassed by the new. The tarmac was pot-holed, the seawall was stained with rust and breaking at the edge here and there, railings needing paint, a wooden shop with a sign saying ice cream and soda was closed, except for weekends.

Thirty yards down the road, there was truck and figure leaning against the railings, talking on his cell. Apart from that the place was deserted.

Cameron told John and Charlie to stay inside their truck. No visible weapons. Blunt as that, and got out, shutting the door behind her. John moved over into the driver's seat, and Charlie watched as, Cameron began scanning everything her around in a full, careful 360 degree.

"She's checking for snipers and anything else hostile." John turned around in his seat explained.

This was a new world to Charlie- trying not to sound nervous." OK like she's good at that yeh ?"

Charlie it what she does, you know I was thinking about this if I was send anyone back to protect me then maybe she's going to be the best soldier I've got.

Charlie frowned and rubbed the knuckle of his index finger over his lip, like he was going to bite on it.

"You even supposed to have that gun under the seat John?"

John shrugged, " It's not mine, it's Cameron's. I guess she's supposed to have guns"

* * *

FBI Agent James Ellison rested his arms the railings. He gazing out over the Pacific Ocean then he found himself watching the waves turning over and breaking on the edge of the tide. Tantalizingly the waves seemed to be making him an offer and then retracting it before he could figure out what it was .Nonetheless the sea's movement stilled his mind and brought him into sharper focus. He tried to keep his body calm. This was an unexpected diversion from the plan but they'd have to act on it, quickly .The plan had been to take John Connor and the driver out three miles down the road. He pressed the button on his cell sending the text he'd prepared when he'd seen the target car pull up thirty yards away. He'd have to keep them talking for the next few minutes.

A dark haired girl who'd got out of the truck had walked towards him and leaned on the rail next to him. She was pretty, brown eyed and she faintly scowled into the horizon. She looked like she was thinking something deep. Ellison professionally looked her over. She was wearing along checkered a shirt. Most college kids dressed like this, olive combats and boots . It was this year's urban uniform and she'd got to be seventeen eighteen. Eyes clear ,no drugs, probably a good student from a good good family So what was she doing mixed up in this? Ellison made an on the spot decision: the guy they'd found tied up in Charlie's flat was a grade A loon , but it didn't mean this girl wasn't dangerous, and she was somehow caught up with the Connors tot he extent she was driving John Connor and Charlie Dixon away from the scene of a kidnapping and violent torture.

James realized the girl was examining him , slowly turning her head to look at him .

"What are you doing? Are you asking the sea for something? You look like you are." Her voice sounded totally without stress and her question took him by surprise.

"I guess I was just trying to work something out." Ellison replied, he was counting down, keeping it cool. "Like why did you pull in here?"

"I was thinking," Cameron continued, " it says in your bible when you ask for something, you must have faith and not doubt. Anyone who doubts is like an ocean wave tossed around in a storm. If you are that kind of person, you can't make up your mind, and you surely can't be trusted."

James recoiled a little by the unexpectedness of her reply and smiled, "Are you theology student as well?"

"You could say I am studying humanities, but right now I have a problem"

"OK what's that?"

"I can not trust you yet because you haven't made up your mind."

"About what? You got something you want to say to me?" Cameron recognized that Ellison appeared ready to listen.

"Yes I have. I am unarmed and please, stop looking around, this is not a trap of my making . It is no coincidence I spotted your truck parked here"

"If it's not a coincidence-then what is it?" Ellison asked cautiously- Cameron noticed he was now looking to a fixed point over her shoulder out to sea.

"You are being called Mr. Ellison, and it's time to make up your mind,about many things."

She placed her hand on his forearm briefly, and then turned her hand over so her palm was facing him. "I must ask you for your gun. I will give it back to you when you have decided."

Ellison stared at her, stepped back and drew a Springer .45 and pointed it at her head. She didn't blink or move , she stood calmly looking at him as if had deeply hurt her feelings .

Ellison appeared sympathetic: " Did you honestly not stop to think the geeks in The Bureau might have realized you and John were hacking them, and we might concievably have been watching Mr. Dixons flat ?"

Cameron shrugged.

"Do you know where Sarah Connor is, huh?"

Cameron shook her head. She had already heard the throb of rotors and she glanced away from the muzzle pointed at her forehead and out to sea . A black Bell UH I helicopter was skimming in low, dragging up clouds of spray in its wake. She could make out the lettering FBI its nose. It was clearly heading in on an attack course. From the highway made out the wail of sirens as FBI vehicles began entering the old beach road cutting off their only exit.

Cameron spoke in a quiet calm voice that left Ellison cold.

"And ,did you not think I might have anticipated this. Mr. Ellsion?"

* * *

John Connor saw the helicopter coming in then heard the sirens, he did what he was trained to do he started up the SUV and rammed it into into drive accelerating down the broken road throwing Charlie back into his seat,

Ellison saw the vehicle approaching he seemed to chew a moment and asked "Is John Armed? Think carefully how you answer."

The helicopter banked as it approached the shoreline and began turning turned so it hovered length-ways as it began the last thirty feet of descent .The backwash blew up a whirlwind of saltwater grit and sand. when it touched down on beach a tactical laser with a wavelength of 532 nm briefly and erratically played over her face and optics and her combat systems informing 27.4 M s away a sniper's rifle was being trained on her . Four men were already ramp and walking towards her ,

For Ellison's benefit the corner of Cameron's lips faintly curled into a smile. "John isn't armed , I instructed he to leave all weapons under the seat in the truck." Ellison tried to read her her eyes, behind the calm there was a sense of hurt , almost incomprehension,- after all he, reasoned was pointing a gun at her. This wasn't normal, why was she being like this?

The `SWAT support team had spread out on the beach and they were training their weapons at John's side door and windows. John saw Cameron's hand at her side gesturing him to stay exactly where he was. John shut his eyes for a moment , _Get a grip John, she's a terminator. She knows what she's doing_. In the back, Charlie appeared to have turned a whiter shade of pale of and looked like he was going throw up.

"It's gonna be OK Charlie , relax just stay still until she signals." Charlie heard John's voice, it was full of confidence. Charlie swallowed hard and watched the scene in front of him unfold.

* * *

Ellison couldn't follow what happened next, a blur of movement snatched the Springer out of his hand. Somehow his fingers had been de-laced from around the pistol grip and he was left grasping empty air. Cameron spun so fast he heard the swish of her arms as she slipped the Springer onto semi automatic. She was moving over her targets a rapid arc, hair splaying around her , firing off precise shots and Ellison could see the forearms of the SWAT exploding into red mist and they were falling, dropping their weapons onto he sand . Within less than two seconds the whole team were down , in the middle of it a shot had rung out out from the helicopter. Ellison though he heard it ricochet off the railing. With the assault team writhing on the ground clutching their wounds Cameron adjusted her position. Ellison could hear the snipers scream as her shot took out the knuckles of his index and forefinger and having having passed through skin and bone pounding into the Kevlar jacket around his shoulder fracturing his collarbone for good measure.

Cameron grabbed Ellison, lifting him off his feet and threw him over the railings towards the group injured men. When he hit the sand the air exploded out of his lungs. Lying there he saw her moving moving faster than was believably possible .She reached the gangway and the threw the injured sniper out of the helicopter onto the beach . Ellison could see the pilot desperately trying to get the blades powered up for emergency take off . Cameron climbed inside, disappeared momentarily to return with the unconscious pilot she quickly got out and dragging both the pilot and the sniper five meters away from the Bell. To Ellison the strip of sand in front of him littered with injured men looked like a piece of black and white documentary of Omaha Beach .

At Cameron's signal Charlie and John Connor dived out of the SUV, jumped the railings and were sprinting towards her.

Ellison sat up hopelessly as she quickly advanced between the injured men towards him. She directed John and Charlie to get on the helicopter. FBI sirens were maybe, two hundred yards away up the slip road . Ellison couldn't take his eyes off her: Was she going to kill him? As Cameron drew level she stopped and crouched down front of him . Ellison could clearly see the large gash from the sniper's round running from her cheek along her neck and under her left ear. Something inside her wound glinted in the sunlight.

She held out a delicate hand towards him "Trust me." It wasn't a question it was command.

Ellison was hauled to his feet and quickly led towards the helicopter. He could he the groans of the injured men left behind on the sandbank . He felt her helping him up into the holding area, the floor was slippery from the sniper's blood. Ellison lay down and rolled away from the closing hatch. FBI vehicles were cars has skidding to a halt, doors were opening and officers piling out of their vehicles. Although they had drawn their weapons they seemed reluctant to fire of the heads of the SWAT team that lay injured or trying to stand up on the sand- Ellison figured she'd positioned them there as a human shield, between the Huey and his support team. _What_ was he dealing with here?

Dixon was sitting with his back to the fuselage. He was panting for breath and caught Ellison looking over at him. He held his hand up - "She's on our side " he manged to gasp.

* * *

Cameron jumped into the pilot's seat and examined the controls. They weren't exactly a standard layout for a Bell UH1 . It had been modified. She paused for a moment to look over the switchgear.

John stood behind her breathless . Behind him the SWAT team leaping over the railings and running full pelt through the sand towards them. John's eyes seemed to indicate a state of rising panic and his heart rate was elevated. " You know how to fly this thing, right?" He was almost stuttering his words out.

She gestured for him to get down in the reinforced shell and experimentally she drew back on the throttle . The rotor speed increased, then the nose dipped forward and very erratically the helicopter began its take off.

"John, I know how to fly 'this thing' , I think."

Off the deck Fifteen year old John Connor looked up at her with startled and frightened . Cameron smiled a tiny inscrutable smile back, and mouthed the words, "fooled you again " as the Huey started moving off.

Seconds later the first round tore through the non reinforced part of the fuselage , then the glass above his head shattered. John curled into a ball. These guy's weren't screwing around. They were trying to take out the pilot and the engine.

Cameron having turned the helicopter to present the slenderest target , hauled open the throttle, and keeping as low as possible to the waves, accelerated the Huey up to 130mph, attempting to put as much distance between them and the shooting party on the beach as she could. Once out of range she banked and aimed the Huey back inland heading for a wide flat valley cut into the sandbanks . She was flying so low the helicopter feet almost skimmed the inlet's surface. She had to keep them under Radar.

Ellison and Dixon were clinging onto the webbing grips in the hold . "John?" Charlie shouted over the rushing, roaring air .

"I'm good." Came back John's voice.

For the first time they heard Cameron in combat mode, addressing them loudly in monotone:"Please find a position and brace for impact, the FBI have scrambled Edwards Air Force Base. We have to get out of the air now. We're going down ."

Charlie glanced at Ellison, he was muttering the words to an otherwise silent prayer.

The helicopter was slowing . Cameron had calculated the levee was seven meter deep at its lowest point. The waters surface, reflecting sky blue rushed up to meet them amidst a white spray of backwash.

"John" He heard her voice shouting over the protesting ,screaming engine . She sounded like she was contemplating something.

"What?" he shouted back.

"We're going to get so grounded for this."

He couldn't help it the Connor grin spread over his face . In that moment he knew he loved her.


End file.
